Science Instruction in the Middle and Secondary Schools: Developing Fundamental Knowledge and Skills, 8th edition

• NEW! Supports science teaching and learning as reflected in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) (See New to This Edition section for details).
• NEW! Prepares teacher candidates to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions called for in the 2012 NSTA Standards for Science and Teacher Preparation (See New to This Edition section for details).
• Numerous motivating features give the concepts meaning:
• Chapter opening vignettes serve as advanced organizers of the chapter and focus help readers focus on the basic functions of science teaching: purpose, planning, assessing, teaching, and managing.
• Numerous cases, vignettes, and classroom snapshots of examples of effective and ineffective teaching practices help readers reflect on the process of teaching and learning.
• Stop and Reflect exercises help readers put chapter content n context and reflect on what they’re read.
• Assessing and Reviewing questions—Analysis and Synthesis, Practical Consideration, and Developmental Consideration—appear at the end of each chapter to help test and practice comprehension of the material.
• Resources to Examine at the end of each chapter suggest articles, books, and online resources for further reading.
• Captivating photographs highlight students and teachers engaged in learning experiences.
• A Beginning Science Teacher’s Checklist helps in evaluating lesson assessment practices.
• Coverage of critical topics includes:
• The excitement and challenges associated with entering the science teaching profession.
• Teaching students with special needs and equity in science teaching and learning includes topics relevant to current teaching responsibilities.
• An emphasis on student investigation, modeling, representation, and argumentation.
• Safety in the classroom, including safety and the law, eye protection, safety rules and contracts.
• Differentiated Instruction including ways teachers can address the diverse learning needs of today’s students.
• Use of Technological Tools of Science Learning, such as computer data collection probe-ware and graphing calculators, discusses their use in student investigations.
• Learning through talk and argumentation, with examples of the use of discussion, demonstration, and lecture in science teaching.

• NEW! Supports science teaching and learning as reflected in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS):
• Chapters include explicit references to the NGSS.
• Discussions provide guidance to help teachers engage students in learning experiences that bring together the practices of science and engineering, crosscutting concepts and core science issues.
• NEW! Strategically designed to help prepare teacher candidates to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions called for in the 2012 NSTA Standards for Science and Teacher Preparation:
• Applicable National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Standards for Science Teacher Preparation are highlighted where relevant in each chapter.
• The book’s Preface details how the chapters cover the NSTA Standards.
• NEW! The chapter organization enables users to systematically develop a solid grounding in the fundamentals of science teaching, including:
• Professional attributes.
• Instructional practices.
• Major themes of science education.
• NEW! Chapter Objectives are aligned with questions and tasks described in the Assessing and Reviewing section of each chapter.
• An assessment is now presented for each chapter objective.
• NEW! A new and engaging vignette opens each chapter in Part I. The vignettes:
• Draw readers into the chapters.
• Highlight professional challenges and dilemmas.
• Serve as referents for many points of discussions.
• NEW! A new framework to orient readers to the multiple dimensions of science teaching is presented in Chapter 1, The Thought and Actions of Beginning Science Teachers. Presented as a tool, it helps users develop a big picture view of the science teaching and brings attention to the personal attributes, as well as teaching skills and strategies linked to effective instruction and student learning.
• Comparisons between effective and ineffective teaching practices aid the user’s orientation to the teaching profession.

NEW! Changes to content:

• NEW! A totally rewritten Chapter 2, The Purpose of Science Teaching, now provides context for science teaching based on the NGSS and current directions in science education.
• The history of science teaching in the United States is overviewed, with a special focus on the current reform driven by international comparisons and the desire for education that prepares students for college and careers.
• The NGSS, Common Core State Standards in English/language arts and mathematics, and associated assessment initiatives are discussed, as are the Standards for Science Teacher Preparation.
• NEW! New sections on interpreting assessment data are included in Chapter 4, Assessing Science Learning.
• The focus is on the important process of making sense of assessment data and using data purposefully to guide instructional interventions.
• NEW! Changes in the processes of planning and teaching based on the expectation for student learning outlined in A Framework of K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crossing Cutting Concepts, and Core Ideas and based on current research findings and innovations are highlighted throughout.
• NEW! An expanded discussion of the new vision for science education reflected in the NGSS is included in Chapter 7, The Nature of Science, Engineering and Technology.
• New sections discuss the relationship of science to engineering and technology and the practices of engineering.
• NEW! The concept of inquiry in light of the presentation of practices of science and engineering in A Framework of K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crossing Cutting Concepts, and Core Ideas is described in Chapter 8, Inquiry in Science Teaching.
• NEW! Greater emphasis is placed on the American cultural mosaic and what teachers need to know and do to ensure that all students have opportunities to learn science in Chapter 9, Diverse Adolescent Learners and Differentiated Instruction.
• New sections present understandings about equitable science learning that serve as drivers for the NGSS.
• NEW! New understanding about science learning is addressed in Chapter 10, Learning in Middle and Secondary Schools.
• New discussions cover learning progressions and the significance of motivation to the learning process.
• The information-processing model of learning is used as a major conceptual scheme to understand learning.
• NEW! Consistent with NGSS, the themes of argumentation, modeling, and investigation bring coherence to the chapters in Section III: Strategies for Science Teaching.
• In Chapter 11, the instructional strategies of lecture, discussion, and demonstration are presented as tools for promoting scientific discourse and the analysis of scientific argumentation.
• The discussion of socio-scientific issues in Chapter 12 highlights opportunities for scientific argumentation as a vehicle for understanding the activities of scientific communities as well as to develop science understandings.
• Chapter 13, Laboratory Work and Fieldwork, now includes new examples of teaching practices for encouraging meaningful learning when students are engaged in laboratory and fieldwork.
• Chapter 14, Safety in the Laboratory and Classroom, has been modified to reflect new understandings about safe uses and maintenance of chemicals and other substances in science classrooms and to specially address the 2012 NSTA Safety Standard.
• Chapter 15, Computers and Electronic Technologies, includes a new section about teaching science courses online and gives greater emphasis to the process by which teachers choose technologies to support students’ science learning. Included is a new framework that stresses the effective use of educational technologies as cognitive tools.